This is how the conversation went: "What goes into your decision-making about the presidency?"

"You'd only run if you thought it was your duty — you'd only run if you thought that the country needed a fundamental resetting of the course, and if you thought that you could play a role in having that happen."

Also, Gingrich said, he would listen to the opinions of his family.

Since he's celebrated as a master strategist, I asked him what the political factors would be. Gingrich's response:

"Can you put together a national campaign? Do you have a message that you believe the country could rally around? And are you prepared to go through that kind of intense commitment to endure the process of campaigning, to endure the attacks that are inevitable, and to communicate the things you believe in? The greatest single attractiveness of a campaign is that there is no other way to have a conversation with the American people more effective than a presidential campaign. Because you really can get the access, you can — people will pay attention."

What about the baggage? Specifically, the three marriages and history of adultery.

"Who knows? Time will tell."

Had he done any polling on that?

"No. Look, there's a ton and a half of polling out there. It's all free. You can go look at all the different polls. What you don't know is whether or not people care or are worried enough about the country's future and feel the need for experienced leadership that's actually participated in things on the scale of welfare reform and balancing the budget — the fact that we had the lowest spending since Calvin Coolidge, even with a liberal Democrat in the White House. So you don't know how people will respond."

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Unprompted, he continues:

"The interesting thing is that in a presidential campaign, all the information comes together and people have to render composite judgments. You can't take two things and isolate them and say, 'If I tell you two good things, will you like him?' And then if I tell you two bad things, will you dislike him? At that level, you actually do have a chance for people to get a sense of the total person, and then make a decision."

And what's the opinion of the Republican leadership? I contacted one of Gingrich's long-time mentors, Eddie Mahe. A former deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee and a campaign consultant to Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Mahe spotted Gingrich's talents when he was just an eccentric young congressman. "I don't see him as a front-runner because he has some baggage with him, but I don't see how anyone can say he's not a serious candidate," Mahe told me. "With his name recognition, his platform, his rhetorical capacity..."

But realistically, can he overcome that baggage?

"I think there's been folks in the White House with just as much — including a certain gentleman from Arkansas. Does that make it difficult? Yes. Does it make it impossible? No."

Still, Mahe seemed to prefer another option. "He clearly could be very influential — if he went to his list and said, I know these people, I would urge you to support XYZ, it could make a big difference."

In fact, Mahe had a certain person in mind: "One of the ones he could be most helpful with might be Sarah Palin. I think Newt could deal at some level with the issue of her capacity."

But when I spoke to Gingrich about Palin, that option had zero appeal. After a long pause, he began with a bit of verbal hedging. "Well, look..."

In his latest book, To Save America, he made a crack attacking all "bridges to nowhere" that politicians love to build, so I used it to prompt him. "I saw the dig you made in your book against the Bridge to Nowhere."

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"Well, she was opposed to the Bridge to Nowhere."

"So she says."

"Yeah, that's what she says. I take her at her word."

This sounded ironic to me, though Gingrich said it with a very straight face.

"But there are a lot of people capable of running for president," he continued. "The question is, whether there is a set of ideas — this is essentially the essence of Reagan, the essence of Thatcher — and obviously in our new book, To Save America, we are outlining what we feel is a very important general program. And we're doing it in public, so anyone who wants to can take it."

As to his own plans, Gingrich said what he always says in public:

"We'll decide next year, probably in February or March, whether there is a large enough desire for a specific candidacy as opposed to a desire for ideas. I'd be very happy doing what I'm doing for the rest of my life, but we're going to take a serious look at whether we have to do more than that."

So, let's do the math. The man is running for the Oval Office...

1. If you have noble sense of duty.

2. If the country needs a fundamental reset.

3. If you can put together a campaign.

4. If you have a powerful message.

5. If people need experienced leadership that already balanced the budget and cut welfare. (Hmmm, where could we find such a person?)

6. If the media access of a national campaign gives you a chance to re-introduce your "total person" to the American people.